TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has launched the 2045 Indonesia's vision in a meeting of the 2019 national development and planning in Shangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Thursday, May 9. The President is optimistic that Indonesia will become the world’s fourth or fifth largest economy by 2045.

“We have a chance to become the country with the largest economy. We are able to enter the fifth largest economy in the world and the fourth most powerful countries by 2045,” said the President during his speech.

Despite huge opportunities, he added, there would be many challenges Indonesia should overcome, and that was not easy. Many countries were stuck in the middle-income trap because they could not deal with internal problems.

“Don’t ever think to act regularly, so we can reach the world’s fourth-largest economy. It cannot be like that. There‘s no such formula,” Jokowi underlined, adding that the people should not get stuck in daily routines.

The former Solo Mayor further mentioned that infrastructures and equality problems must be fixed. He then ordered regional heads to establish integration between existing infrastructures built by the central government and their production points.

Structural reforms and bureaucracy were also required to be deal with. The President hoped issues on institutional and permission could be simplified and recommended closure for inefficient and unproductive state agencies.

“The simpler our organization can be, the faster we can run, and the more flexible for us to set policy,” he added.

The last problem to be solved is human resources development. Jokowi asserted the importance of upskilling and reskilling for the country's human resources as well as student scholarships and the link and match program of the vocational school education (SMK) with the existing industry.

“Synchronize SMK to the industry so [the human resources] will suit the real demand,” he concluded.

FRISKI RIANA